How Safe is your Visa Card Account at the Big Banks?

My wife checked on the ( ) Bank monthly statement of December 2006 on 2nd Jan 2007 and

found out there was a billing by the X Fitness Club. She also checked back further into the 2006 November and October statements there are similar billings from X Fitness Club for C62.54 each of the two months.

My daughter did not renew her 2006 membership with X Fitness Club yet her membership fee has been setup on an automatic renewal basis without any prior notice to her from the Club.

To help my readers understand this incident, I think I need to tell you what happened

according to the timeline as follows:

In 2004 my daughter first joined the X Fitness Club. This first association with X Fitness Club was an unhappy experience for her. It was a long story. To make this story short let me simply say that she ended the contract and cancelled that contract by paying the balance unused portion after several consultation with the ( ) Bank and exchange of letters. It was a written cancellation.

But the Fitness Club did not remove her data then (2004) from the computer. They still retained my daughter's file with all her personal data including the ( ) Bank Visa Card information. the Fitness Club used this info to autorenew her membership for 2006 after a vacuum time lapse of 12 months. Is it legally allowed by the banking industry?.

In 2005 my daughter joined X Fitness Club again. She did not ask us for any advice. I simply don't understand why she joined this same Club again.

Anyway, based on the previous unhappy expenience she is somewhat alert. She paid the Fitness Club by debit card the full year 12 month payment upfront. She was reasuured verbally that it was good for 12 months and no cancellation required. She was told to sign a contract which she signed

on the dotted line unaware of that there was the small print in connection with the

automatic renewal if she don't cancel the contract personally in time. She was misled to sign a sneaky contract.

As she was not told the complete truth and she did not read the contract in great care, this sneaky contract will automatically renew each year according the contract term. Hence, she was trapped unknowingly in the trick sneakily setup by the Club. Is there any consumers' protection here for similar cases?

The 12 month contract 2005 expired.

In November 2006, X Fitness Club billed us silently using the ( ) Bank Visa Card account information which was not removed but retained by the Club after the contract cancellation of 2004.

And we overlooked the X Fitness Club billing in the Visa Card monthly statement and we paid in full for the settlement of the month's total balance unknowingly including the Club fee of C$62.54

On 2 Jan 2007 my wife found out this Club's sneaky billing for December 2006.

We phoned the ( ) Bank Visa Card center and informed them the above in details. In their reply

we learned that the Club had also debited C$62.54 for the Jan 2007 to my visa card and this amount will appear in next monthly statement coming around mid Jan 2007. We are told that they cannot block the payments for December 2006 and and Jan 2007. We need to cancel the contract with Fitness Club first and submit relevant cancellation document to the ( ) Bank for follow up. Is this the only way ? Is the ( ) Bank telling the complete truth ? They said it was the bank billing my visa card. It was the X Fitness Club debiting my visa account. They cannot block such billing even I am requesting for it, even I delete my daughter's supplementary card, even I delete my visa card and bank account. This is very scary, Isn't it? It seems to me that the ( ) Bank is totally don't care about the safety of my money at their bank account. Is this allowed by the banking industry code

of ethnics?

I have the following questions as well and I need some people's help here:

1. Can ( ) Bank stop the Fitness Club billing upon my request?

2. If not, Why ( ) Bank cannot stop the Fitness Club billing ?

3. Can the Fitness Club retained my daughter's personal info and use the Visa Card info

to autorenew the contract without any prior notice?

4. Can we ask the Fitness Club for reimbursement ? (We have just cancelled this latest contract

with the the Fitness Club. I went with my daughter to see their General Manager, he said the company will not give any reimbursement in money but agreed to give 3 month access

to their fitness facility as fee covered already by our payment debited to the Visa card).

I would very much appreciate your comments on this matter. I wish this info here is helpful to you my readers and people who may have similar unhappy encounter with their credit card expenses.